39 short pages about one game, in five sections

Those Who Came BeforeDesign Notes

or “How an Artefact Gets Made and Why the Design Argues Back”

A game about an archaeologist whose mistakes compound into an unreliable narrative. These pages document the ideas underneath it, the design that turns misreading an artefact into the point, and the pipeline that makes every artefact a real object with a ground truth the player never reads directly.

No prior archaeology required. No prior game development either, and no prior software background: the Ideas section needs neither.

Ledger
runtimeDeno · SvelteKit 2 engineTypeScript, framework-free roadmap115 / 359 tasks pipeline6 of 9 stages shipped spec14 documents, doc 11 closed
Legend
How settled the thinking is. Six rungs, drawn as dots: ○○○○○ an itch nobody has resolved, through to ●●●●● a position taken. How much of it exists in code. Unbuilt, designed only, partial, or shipped. They move independently: a page can be a firm position nothing has built, or shipped code whose thinking is still a draft.

New here? pick a way in

The Vision : if you've never seen the game. No code, no archaeology. Two Readings of the Same Sword : if you want to know why it's built this way. Seeding & Determinism : if you're about to read the code.
Fieldnotes

What we're still working out

7 entries
Fieldnotes

Settledness is the subject, not a caveat: each entry carries how far it has travelled from an itch to a stand.

itch○○○○○something caught your attention and hasn't resolved into a thought
hunch●○○○○you think you know the answer and can't yet say why
sketch●●○○○the shape of an answer is on the page, but the parts don't connect
draft●●●○○it holds together and reads through, with nothing decided
call●●●●○something has been chosen, not committed to
stand●●●●●it's taken a position; it moves to Design when Jason says so
01The Itch Pageevery oversight caught in the making of this, in the order it was caught○○○○○ itch 02Scrutiny With a Name on Ita reviewer whose own positions you can check●●●●○ call 03What the Profession Rewardsfive reputations, moving in opposite directions at once●●●○○ draft 04Schools You Discover Rather Than Joininferred from who agrees with whom, never named●○○○○ hunch 05The Corpus Cyclewhat happens once a claim leaves you●●●●○ call 06The Academic Yearenergy runs out before time does●●●●● stand 07How Much of a Person Does a Scholar Need to Be?a surface you bounce off●●○○○ sketch
Ideas

What this is about

5 entries
Ideas
✘ obsidian is not available locally  (found to be false, year 23)
↓  ✓ therefore it was imported
↓  ✓ therefore contact existed
↓  ✓ therefore the river carried goods
↓  ✓ therefore the fort protected trade
four valid inferences. no mistake was made after the first.
startThe Visionnobody wrote the answer down 02The Discipline That Already Happeneda whole career, simulated 03How You Get Fooledselected, not invented 04Time You Have to Earnnobody shares a calendar 05Culture Over Timerich compared to when?
Design

Why it's like this

14 entries
Design

One decision per page, and the alternative that lost. No status column here: these are arguments, not components, so “does it run” is the wrong question.

startTwo Readings of the Same Swordthe entry point 02Five Channels of Filteringmisleading without ever lying 03Relative vs Absolute Classificationwhose culture is the classifier judging? 04The Engine Doesn't Know Whose Beliefs These Areone interface, player and NPC 05Contradictions Are Revealed by Consequencesnot by checking answers 06Immutable Documentsretraction is a social act, not a delete 07The Commitment Ratchetwhy publishing makes you blinder 08Labels That Emerge Instead of Being Assignednobody chooses a category 09A Truth Nobody Consultsground truth that stays buried 10Every Culture Keeps Its Own Calendarno world timeline 11What Rotted and What Was Dugreading an absence 12Perceived Versus Actual Raritywhat everyone believes is scarce 13Why Names Get a Phoneme Enginesounds, not spellings 14The Grammar May Not Know What It's Buildingnaming it is your job
Mechanism

How it works

9 entries
Mechanism

The generation pipeline, stage by stage, in the order it runs. Six of the nine stages exist in code today; the diagram below is that, at a glance.

stages 1–9Pipeline Overviewnine stages, three cadencespartial stage 1Seeding & Determinismevery draw is accounted forshipped stages 2–3World Generationthe world is still a fixturedesigned only stage 4Structural Grammarthe grammar doesn't know what a sword isshipped stage 5Normalisation & Plausibilityexhaustion throwsshipped stage 6Material Assignmentfake relics obey real geologyshipped stage 7Decorative Grammarevery layer is an act of craftshipped stage 8Features & Classificationtags are evidence talliesshipped stage 9Description Generationthe engine never says 'dagger'partial
Practice

How the work is done

3 entries
Practice

How the work is checked: what counts as a measurement, what the workbench shows, and how the spec is kept honest.

Those Who Came Before, on GitHubThe repository these pages are written against, commit by commit. → repo
01Measurement Cultureevery constant is on probationpartial 02The Project Explorergeneration you can watchshipped 03The Document Suitethe spec argues backshipped